The master building consultants have been selected for Changi Airport’s mammoth Terminal 5 development in Singapore, with a consortium of Arup, Mott MacDonald, and Surbana Jurong awarded the engineering design contract.

Covering 1,080 hectares of land – nearly double that of Changi’s four current terminals combined – and catering to up 80 million passengers per year through future upgrades, Changi Airport’s Terminal 5 will on its completion by 2030 be one of the largest airport terminals in the world – with project costs running into the tens of billions of dollars.

Following a recent announcement by Changi Airport Group, the engineering consultancies Arup, Mott MacDonald and Surbana Jurong will now be among those responsible for ensuring the key design aspects of the development, together tasked with providing full consultancy services on primary structures such as the main terminal building, the satellite building, and the ground transportation centre.

In addition to the master building consultancy selection, the three firms, along with Changi Airport Planners and Engineers (CAPE), have also been awarded a separate master civil engineering contract for the landside and airside infrastructure design beyond the terminal space, including the aircraft taxiways and parking bays as well as roadways, drainage systems, and connections for fuel, utilities and telecommunications to the Terminal 5 buildings – covering what is currently barren, reclaimed land.Changi Airport Group’s executive vice-president for airport development, Yam Kum Weng, said of the announcement; "Today's award of the contracts comes after months of in-depth discussions with each of the shortlisted firms. We thank all the firms for working closely with us on their proposals for this project and look forward to taking the development of T5 forward with our appointed consultants.”

Further to the engineering firms selected for the master building contracts, architectural design services for the project will be provided by KPF in partnership with Heatherwick Studio and Architects 61, while the architectural design for the commercial spaces within the terminal has fallen to DP Architects – with the overall named consultancies beating out shortlisted bids from Aecom Singapore and Jacobs International following a reshuffle of teams.

The individual firms of the awarded engineering consortium are not unfamiliar with large scale projects, with Arup and Surbana Jurong both selected for sizeable contracts in the Philippines in just the past couple months alone; the Hong Kong branch of Arup for $11 billion worth of transport projects in the Duterte government’s massive infrastructure push, and Surbana Jurong for detailed design work on the New Clark City smart-city development north of Manila. In addition, Mott MacDonald recently entered into a strategic partnership with China Gezhouba International Engineering – the main contractor of the world’s largest power station Three Gorges Dam.

As part of the larger Changi East development, which will include an additional runway to accommodate 50 percent more traffic, Terminal 5 will have the capacity to cater to 50 million extra passengers per annum in its initial phase, raising the airport’s total to more than 135 million. Last year, Changi recorded in excess of 62 million passenger movements at a rate of 6% growth, more than doubling its total number since 2005.

In a recent report, the global consultancy Oliver Wyman projected revenues-per-passenger to grow 5.7% annually across Asia over the next 20 years – with many emerging aviation hubs moving to boost infrastructure with airport developments and upgrades, including proposals tabled in Ho Chi Minh to double existing capacity. In response, Surbana Jurong earlier this year formed a consortium with fellow Singaporean companies ST Engineering and Changi Airport Planners to capitalise on the booming Asia Pacific market.